A Good Present – The Dwelling Church

Day by day Devotional • December 6

18 Woe to you who need the day of the Lord!

    Why would you like the day of the Lord?

It’s darkness, not mild,

19     as if somebody fled from a lion

    and was met by a bear

or went into the home and rested a hand in opposition to the wall

    and was bitten by a snake.

20 Shouldn’t be the day of the Lord darkness, not mild,

    and gloom with no brightness in it?

21 I hate, I despise your festivals,

    and I take no enjoyment of your solemn assemblies.

22 Though you provide me your burnt choices and grain choices,

    I cannot settle for them,

and the choices of well-being of your fatted animals

    I cannot look upon.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;

    I cannot hearken to the melody of your harps.

24 However let justice roll down like water

    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

25 Did you convey to me sacrifices and choices the forty years within the wilderness, O home of Israel? 26 You shall take up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, your photos, which you made for yourselves; 27 due to this fact I’ll take you into exile past Damascus, says the Lord, whose identify is the God of hosts.

Meditation

A few years in the past I learn Demise Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather, aloud to my spouse. It’s a couple of saintly Catholic bishop within the earliest years of mission and ministry within the New Mexico territory. One of many characters is Father Martinez, a pompous priest who brazenly acknowledges kids he has sired from numerous parishioners, and who has seized the properties of others by dishonest means. But he’s an outstanding liturgist and preacher. The Plenty over which he presides draw massive crowds; they’re lovely and transcendent, and for this Father Martinez is broadly appreciated and supported. 

The scenario just isn’t unusual in church historical past. It’s the scenario addressed in immediately’s lesson from Amos. The individuals of Israel have “solemn assemblies” and so they provide the prescribed “burnt choices and grain choices”; they provide “songs” and “the melody of harps.” However they’re solely performances; they don’t seem to be real worship. The Lord says, “I hate, I despise your feasts!” Whoa! That’s in-your-face! 

Justice is missing, and regardless of their lovely liturgies for the Lord, the individuals additionally make photos of  pagan deities. Apparently they’re fully unaware of their foolishness and fallacies, for they are saying that they “need the day of the Lord” as if all had been nicely. Amos’s prophecies say that the day of the Lord will likely be a day of catastrophe, and that what the individuals suppose they’re providing is simply “noise.” 

In Cather’s e-book, Father Martinez is eliminated and deposed. He retaliates by forming his personal church which gathers many followers, nevertheless it shortly sputters into nothing. God tells the individuals of Israel that they are going to be despatched into exile. However his attraction continues to be there: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” The decision and command are timeless: reject what’s merely fashionable, and comply with what’s eternally true.

♱

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